The present invention is related to techniques for capturing a patient""s health parameter data and more particularly related to techniques for capturing patient measurements in a nonclinical environment and reporting the patient measurements to a remote health management center.
In many countries, e.g., the United States, the general population is getting older on the average. A phenomenon that occurs with an aging population is more long-term ailments that impair the normal physiological functions of a person. In many cases such chronic health problems are not immediately life-threatening to a patient and the patient may not benefit significantly from hospitalization. However, often it is necessary to monitor the day-to-day health conditions of a patient for clinicians to provide adequate care to such an individual. Management of chronic illnesses poses unprecedented challenges to the existing healthcare structure and the delivery of its services. Heart failure, coronary heart disease, unstable angina, heart rhythm disturbances, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, congestive obstructive pulmonary disease, and depression are examples of ailments that need diligent patient contact and measurements in order to institute timely management of the patient""s problems before they develop into an untoward clinical course requiring more intensive and expensive management, including hospitalization. For example, for health maintenance, a patient with a risk or history of congested heart failure may need to monitor regularly his weight, blood pressure, temperature, and blood sugar and report the data to a clinic.
For the reason of convenience, if practicable, it is often preferable for a patient to make health parameter measurements. It is advantageous in allowing patients to perform such measurements and report the data to the clinician. To this end, health monitoring systems need to be developed to provide such measurement and reporting functions. In the past, health monitoring required patients to take these measurements manually and report the results either by telephone or by recording them on paper. The human involvement in this process results in the potential for error in reporting the measurement data. Also, significant effort is required to record and manage the patient data by the clinician. Cost effective, secure and confidential remote connections between patients and their clinicians can help to prevent serious, episodic, expensive clinical courses and provide a better quality of life for remotely managed patients.
Because clinicians rely on the data to diagnose and advise the patients, the system should present the necessary health data information in a easily understandable format. Also, it will be beneficial for the system to be versatile so as to provide patient information to a variety of related professionals. For example, patients that need attention and follow up need to be flagged using limits for each patient previously provided by the patient""s clinician. Individual patient review of measurements provided in a unified view may be needed to provide dependable patient management.
Furthermore, the system should be reliable. A system that fails to report data when measurements are taken or fails to receive the transmitted data when the data are communicated from the measurement device will compromise the effectiveness of a program that monitors the health and well-being of the patient.
Although both the clinician and the patient may have the desire to monitor the health parameters of the patient consistently, the patient, being impaired physically, may find it a challenge to perform measurement procedures. Therefore, a system that is complex and requires extensive deftness and multiple steps of manipulation to operate will discourage the patient from complying with a monitoring program prescribed by the clinician. There is a need for a health monitoring system that is easy to use.
Techniques and systems for remote monitoring and reporting have been described in the literature. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,625 (Fu et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,484 (Kaufman et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,010 (Evans-Paganelli et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,549 (Crawford); U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,427 (Langen et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,292 (Hendrickson); U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,638 (Evers et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,952 (Stutman et al); U.S. Pat. No. 5,626,144 (Tracklind et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,366 (Tracklind et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,709 (Tracklind et al.); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,448 (Brown). Many systems reported in the literature suffers from the lack of reliability, convenience, and flexibility. For example, some systems may fail to report when a measurement unit fails to function properly. Some systems are cumbersome for the patient to use. Yet some systems do not provide the flexibility of data reporting and administration needed by health care professionals. Thus, there continues to be a need for a remote monitoring and reporting system for monitoring the health parameters of patients. Furthermore, there is a need for a measurement unit for collecting data reliably, as well as a need for a mechanism for managing and transferring the data to a data management center.
The present invention provides a technique for reporting a patient""s health parameters to a remote data management center. In one aspect, an apparatus of the present invention for reporting a patient""s health parameter includes one or more measurement units each having sensor(s) for sensing measurements of one or more health parameters. The measurement units each include a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting data derived from the measurements (measurement data). A home hub included in the apparatus receives the wireless transmission of measurement data, processes the measurement unit data for efficient transfer and transmits selectively data processed by the home hub (hub data) via a public data transmission network to a health data management unit. In an embodiment, the measurement unit and the home hub each keep a relative time to associate with measurements such that absolute time-keeping is not needed therein. This obviates the need to frequently adjusting a clock in the measurement unit or the home hub to synchronize with an external clock.
The present invention measures health data from a patient and relays the patient measurement data from a home health care measurement unit (device) to a data storage and management system at a site remote from the patient. The invention includes a device that resides at a place of convenience of the patient. Two data networks can be used for the transmission of the measurement data.
The present invention can be advantageously used for monitoring the health parameters of patients. It provides for simple operation that requires very little effort on the part of the patient. Automated patient measurements reduce the potential for error by minimizing human involvement in the reporting of the data. The present invention also eases the workload of the clinician managing the patient by automating the capture, reporting, and management of the data. In the embodiment in which wireless transmission is used between the measurement units and the home hub, tremendous flexibility is available in placing the home health care device relative to the home hub. Installation of the devices is made easier because there are no wires used to connect the home hub with the measurement units. The use of the public telephone system allows for the use of standard equipment with low cost and easy installation. Further, the data management system of the present invention allows for great flexibility in information management. By using LAN and/or the Internet, individuals with a variety of needs and technical expertise, over a wide geographical area can access the information to obtain the information they need, even to input their own feedback to the data management center (e.g., feedback to the clinicians).